1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information signal recording and reproducing apparatus and more particularly to an information signal recording and reproducing apparatus which records a signal for controlling the apparatus on a recording medium used for recording information signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In this specification, magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus, or video tape recorders, of the type which records a video signal as an information signal on a magnetic tape by means of rotating heads (hereinafter called VTR for short) will be used as an example of information signal recording and reproducing apparatus.
VTR's of the type which permit so-called varied speed reproduction, in which reproduction of records from magnetic tapes by allowing the tapes to travel at different speeds from that used in recording, have become popular during recent years. The techniques required for varied speed reproduction has also advanced even in the field of home VTR's. As a result, there have been developed some improved home VTR systems that are capable of precluding noise bars from appearing on reproduced pictures obtained by varied speed reproduction. This is carried out by allowing the tape to travel at a different speed from the standard reproduction speed, such as in high speed search reproduction, slow motion reproduction, still picture reproduction, etc. These improved systems include, for example, a system using a dynamic tracking method in which rotating video heads are deflected by means of piezo-electric elements or the like; a system using double azimuth heads; etc. With the use of these systems, special high quality reproduction pictures have become obtainable. As a result, varied speed reproduction facilities provided in VTR's are more often used.
With respect to recording on the other hand, a continuous recording operation over a long period of time has become possible. Hence, it has become a popular practice to continuously record many scenes on a signal piece of recording tape and to have some of these recorded scenes selectively reproduced later, as desired. In that event, the user has been required to find each of the desired parts of the record from the tape and to operate the apparatus by selecting the reproduction mode thereof for each desired part. Such searching and selecting operations on a long tape has been troublesome. To simplify the searching process for finding a desired recorded scene, VTR's which are capable of automatically searching the initial part of each desired record have been developed. In the VTR having this feature, an indexing or search-out signal is recorded at a part of the recording medium corresponding to the initial part of every record during a recording operation. During a reproducing operation, the apparatus is stopped when this signal is reproduced and then the apparatus is set into a normal reproducing mode. In the search-out mechanism of the prior art, however, the apparatus is merely brought to a stop and into a standard reproduction mode after a desired initial part is set in place. With that mechanism employed for the search-out purpose, the apparatus is set into the standard reproduction mode every time a record starting part is found. Then, if this record starting part is not that of the desired scene, the search operation must be repeatedly performed until the desired scene is found. Therefore, it has been not only time consuming but also troublesome to find a picture from a magnetic tape with a long recording time. It has been especially troublesome where many short scenes are recorded on the tape, as the apparatus must repeatedly go back to the standard reproduction mode each time the initial part of each scene is found.
Conversely, when reach record is long, there is high probability that a desired scene is recorded at a great distance from the initial part of each record and the desired scene cannot be readily found by a search operation. An arrangement which avoids this trouble by making each record short then returns to the above troublesome search-out operation.
Furthermore, in accordance with the prior art VTR's, in situations where a desired scene is to be reproduced by a reproduction mode other than the standard reproduction mode (for example, by varied speed reproduction), the apparatus must be stopped after a search-out process and then the apparatus must be once again set into the desired reproduction mode. Such operation has also been quite troublesome.
In view of the above shortcomings of the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information signal recording and reproducing apparatus which enables the operator to promptly remove the desired information without any trouble.
It is another object of the invention to provide an information signal recording and reproducing apparatus which enables the operator to freely remove a desired recorded signal from records even when the desired signal is not located in the initial part of the record.
It is still another object of the invention to provide an information signal recording and reproducing apparatus which enables the operator to reproduce a desired information signal in a desired reproducing operation mode.